


Lay Us Down (We're in Love)

by lightinthedarkness



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Body Horror, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, spoilers for 68
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-24
Updated: 2016-09-24
Packaged: 2018-08-17 00:05:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,859
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8122825
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lightinthedarkness/pseuds/lightinthedarkness
Summary: “There are things, things I need to tell you, and I’m not telling them to a fucking corpse!”





	

It's the first thing they do at dawn.

There they were, Vox Machina….. _ or at least, most of Vox Machina _ , Vex thought as she looked over the body. She wouldn’t even try to blame the sting in her eyes on the salty air.

Everyone was quiet on the ship, the crew keeping a respectful silence and distance. Vex could barely even remember talking to any of the crew, Scanlan speaking to Captain Damon himself. Instead, her focus stayed on the Raven’s Slumber, as it had since…..

“Vex’ahlia,” she heard her brother’s voice call out, her hazy vision clearing up just enough to see them, Vox Machina, “We’re ready.”

The words barely reach her as her fingers gently brush against the Raven’s Slumber, her free hand tangled in Trinket’s fur. She could feel herself nod as the gentle touch turned to a grip.

Vex didn’t cry when she saw Percy’s body land on the deck of the ship, bloody and beaten. She couldn’t, she already felt….raw, drained, empty.

She watches as Grog positions his body, Keyleth overtop of him, Druidic magic already flowing through her fingers. Even in the haze that clouds her mind, clouds what little of her heart is left, her keen eyes could still see Scanlan, that odd, ill-fitting serious expression on his face, playing his lute for the ritual. The song is….painfully familiar, a song she remembered hearing Celestial accompanying it.

She’s a bit more surprised to see Grog approach the body next, a mug of ale in his hand, “Hey,” she hears him whisper to the body, the quiet tone sounding almost eerie from the Goliath, “So, um...the whole Craven Edge bullshit….I neva’ blamed you,” he sets the mug next to the body’s  (she refused to call it Percy, not yet) arm, “Not once.” and he’s next to Scanlan quickly after.

In the corner of her eye she sees her brother, biting at his lip, holding something in his hand, the broach Percy gave him what seemed like forever ago. As he’s about to move, Vex feels her body move, glide almost.

“Percival Fredrickstein Von Musel Klossowski de Rolo III,” the name flew off her tongue effortlessly, as it had many times before, “You...you can’t be done here, not now,” she could hear her voice cracking, “There are things, things I need to tell you, and I’m not telling them to a fucking corpse!” 

His lips feel cold, still against her, “My heart’s always been yours Darling….” she mumbles.

Vex’ahlia pulls away, fresh tears falling freely. She sees the magic surrounding Keyleth’s hands start to move, covering Percy’s chest, spreading until it consumed his body whole, filling the silent ship with a dull hum.

Keyleth had explained to them earlier about how the spell worked, saying it would take around an hour to finish and that Percy…..might change. Keyleth had told them that whatever Percy came back as would be a roll of the dice.

The humming continued, the magic shimmering around the body. Vex feels Trinket at her side, sitting next to her, standing vigil alongside her.

She watched in amazement. It seemed Keyleth had been right, the spell was changing Percy.

Pale, almost sickly skin darkened. Vex couldn’t help but wince as she heard Percy’s bones crack and creak, boots being torn asunder, dark, hairy hooves taking their place. She forced herself to look away once skin on forehead started to open. When she looked back, a large, elegant horn was now there, the broken base of another right next to it. This all distracted Vex from the sudden long limb next to Percy’s legs, a dark tail as still as the body.

The magic aura began to fade from the body, a bright green energy dulling into nonexistence. Vex could feel the copper-like taste of blood in her mouth as she bit her lip, carefully rising up from her seat.

“Percy, Darling?” her own voice comes out small, fragile, pleading.

A moment passes, a beat of silence. She almost gave up, the fragment of her heart ready to be sealed away, when she heard a grunt.

The tip of the tail, previously still, barely twitched, as did the closed eyes, a low hum coming from the chest, “Yes?” his voice was groggy, hazy as a clawed hand rose, scratching at his chin, still covered with stubble.

Vex feels frozen, the haze in her vision disappearing as the body rises up, groaning in discomfort, “Is something,” His eyes, now yellow with a dark slit, opened and widened, “Ripley, where is sh-”

She moved on instinct, encasing him in a viper-like grip, burying her face deep in his shoulder, inhaling the scent of black powder and….life.

She is somehow able to hear the footsteps of the others through the sobs wracking through her body. More arms joined her own, more sobbing as they held onto Percy.

~~~

He’s not sure whether to consider this a cruel joke by the Gods, or something else.

He’s just going to call it a cruel joke, it sounds far more spiteful.

When Vox Machina finished greeting him back (it...it hardly felt like he had left at all, a concept that terrified him), he felt….different.

They were all looking at him differently (well, almost all of them).

He needed to excuse himself right away, he had to  _ see  _ for himself. Which, in a way he did, as he tripped over his new hooves trying to walk away.

Hooves lead to tail, tail lead to claws, claws led to the realization of the pounding headache and horns that adorned his head.

Percy found himself….awfully calm about the situation, if he were being perfectly honest with himself. He felt...odd, off, weird, but he was alive.

He was alive.

Percival de Rolo III was  _ alive. _

This is what was running through his head as he stared at the night sky, the breeze from the airship tousling his hair (still white, the somehow only part about the old him to remain).

“Percy?” a sweet, honey-like voice interrupted his thoughts, followed by a wince of pain from the same voice.

“Oh sweet Pelor!” he quickly turned, seeing Vex rub at a spot on her leg. Percy let out a deep sigh, “I’m so sorry dear I-”

She raised a hand to him, a small smile on her face, “Darling, it's fine,” she reassured him, nodding to his new tail, “No one expects you to have perfect control in a day,” she winked at him.

Her smile only made him feel worse. He knew that look, “Vex, I-”

“How are you?” she interrupted him, leaning over the side of the ship, her gaze still on him.

He hesitated, tempted to press the issue, but decided against it, “As well as one can be….I suppose,” he kept a closer eye on his tail as he leaned over once more, “And yourself?”

“Well, we have our talented tinkerer back, I could hardly think we’d be doing better-”

“I meant you Vex’ahlia,” he rose, staring at her intensely, “I...I heard.”

He remembers, remembers the sound of a lute playing, Grog’s voice whispering to him, Vex…..

“Heard what?”

“What you said….about things you needed to tell me…”

She visibly stiffened at that, soft smile turning more…..sorrowful.

~~~

She meant what she had said earlier.

There was no way in any of the Nine Hells she would’ve told that to a corpse.

“I needed to tell you Percival,” she looked into his new eyes, still shining despite the blue coloring gone, they still felt like oceans she could get lost in, “That….I love you.”

She could see his hands tighten against the banister, eyes widening, “Umm…”

“That I love that beautiful mind of yours, that I love how you always have a witty remark for everything,” she bit her lip, wrapping her arms around herself, “That I love how, despite you saying you’re a terrible man, you still sang a child back to life, you still worked to preserve a whole city,” Dammit, she had just stopped crying, “And you still listened to the silly concerns of a half-elf that couldn’t-”

She felt something slink around her waist, looking to see the tail wrapping around her waist. Without another moment passing she was pulled towards Percy, his arms encasing her. She hardly cared, fresh sobs shaking her body as she grabbed his shirt for some inch of comfort.

He buried his face into her hair, “Vex’ahlia….” she could feel his body shake along with hers. They stayed like that for sometime, until Percy’s voice broke the sobbing, “Do you….want to know….I was there for only a short time, but do you want to know what I was thinking of….before?”

She could only look at him, tears blurring her vision, giving him a simple nod. He smirked at her, wrapping his arms around her again, “I thought about Whitestone,” he started, his tone deep, soft, gentle, “About how my home still needs me, about how there are still dragons out in the world, threatening it, I couldn’t…” he takes in a deep breath, exhaling into her hair, “I thought of Cassandra, of the pain we both shared…thinking we were the last of the de Rolos. That pain….was misery….I’d never put her through that...not again…”

Her arms tightened around him, some attempt to soothe him, “And….” he paused, freezing for a moment, “I thought...of you…”

“Well, I-”

He raised a clawed finger to shush her, “I didn’t finish dear,” he chuckled, tapping a finger to her nose, taking a moment to mull over his words, “Vex’ahlia?”

“Yes?”

He took his finger and thumb, cupping her chin, “Did you know,” he gently traced her lips with a claw, “That you have….” she swears she could see his cheeks darkening, “A smile, that Kings would give  _ anything  _ to see?”

He continued when she said nothing, “I thought about it a lot, your smile,” his hand trailed down her neck, down her arm, “How much I adore it, how much I like being the cause of it, even for something like an exploding arrow,” he chuckled, his hand finally stopping at her own, lifting it to his lips, “How badly I want to protect it, dragons be damned.” 

He kissed the inside of her fingers, his new forked tongue feeling foreign to her. He kissed her palm before moving, kissing the front of her hand, “Vex’ahlia.”

“Percy?”

“I love you too,” the look he gave her, the small smile, it nearly broke her heart, “And I’m,  _ terribly _ sorry it took...my death, for me to tell you.”

This time, Percy’s lips are warm, vibrating with life against hers. Vex’s hands tangle in his hair, working their way around the horns. She felt the tail tighten around her, but she didn’t care.

She pulls away, a classic smirk playing on her lips, “My heart is yours, Percival Fredrickstein Von Musel Klossowski de Rolo III.”

“And mine is yours, Lady Vex'ahlia, Baroness of the Third House of Whitestone and Grand Mistress of the Grey Hunt.”     


End file.
